ACEC/MA 2022 Engineering Excellence Award Winners

Project: The Port Flooding Resiliency Project: Parking Lot No. 6 Stormwater Tank (Cambridge, MA)

Firm: Kleinfelder

Client: City of Cambridge Department of Public Works

Project: North End Pedestrian Path under the Connecticut River Line (Springfield, MA)

Firm: HDR

Client: Massachusetts Department of Transportation

This project won a special Judges' Award for Sustainability

Project: Columbus Avenue Center Running Bus Lanes (Boston, MA)

Firm: Howard Stein Hudson

Client: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Project: L1332-C3 Terminal B Entrance Roadways (Boston, MA)

Firm: Stantec

Client: MassPort – Capital Programs

Project: Boston Children’s Hospital, Excavation Support and Construction Podium (Boston, MA)

Firm: Thornton Tomasetti, Inc.

Client: Treviicos

Silver Award Winners

Project: Peirce Island WWTF Upgrade Project (Portsmouth, NH)

Client: City of Portsmouth, NH

Firm: AECOM

The Peirce Island WWTF Upgrade project has and will continue to contribute to the well-being of the people of Portsmouth and the entire Great Bay Estuary. It has transformed the facility into a modern WWTF that meets limit-of-technology effluent nitrogen limits in a constrained footprint with minimal disruption to a thickly populated downtown community. The project incorporates numerous sustainable features, has met all Consent Decree milestones, and achieved client and community satisfaction. Peirce Island underscores the value of extensive public education and outreach to encourage buy-in and understanding of a project that supports a better, healthier future.

Project: Revitalization of Route 147 with Complete Streets Implementation & Bridge Replacement (Agawam & West Springfield, MA)

Client: MassDOT - Highway Division

Firm: Alfred Benesch & Company

Springfield Street/Memorial Avenue (Route 147) is an urban principal arterial within Agawam and West Springfield, Massachusetts. Alfred Benesch & Company was selected by MassDOT to implement bicycle and pedestrian improvements to promote safe and efficient movements of all modes of transportation. Upgrades included signal optimization and lane reconfigurations; installation of medians and channelizing islands for traffic calming; implementing a two-way bicycle path with crossings, two-stage queue boxes and bicycle signals at intersections; installing two ADA compliant sidewalks to promote accessibility; and replacing the Memorial Avenue bridge to accommodate the width for the various complete streets features.

Project: Colby College Athletic Complex (Waterville, ME)

Client: Colby College

Firm: Arup

Arup provided a suite of engineering and consulting services to Colby College to help design the most advanced and comprehensive NCAA D-III facility in the country. The 350,000ft² Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center consists of an athletic training facility, a track and field house, a year-round ice facility, an aquatic center, and recreational activity centers. Arup’s parametric modeling and engineering solutions resulted in a target energy reduction of 47% below modern code baseline, including a reduction in embodied carbon of 800 tons. The complex serves as a gateway to the campus for both Colby students and the Waterville community.

Project: Cambridge Discovery Park - Final Phase (Cambridge, MA)

Client: The Bulfinch Companies Inc.

Firm: BSC Group, Inc.

The Cambridge Discovery Park project is worthy of special recognition because of its careful consideration of many multifaceted competing priorities: ecological functionality, storm resilience, regulatory compliance, and the need for open space. The innovation and complexity involved, using both natural and engineered solutions, enhances the environment within the park and throughout the surrounding community. The expertise of all project team members transformed the former Arthur D. Little campus into a world class office and research campus for the life sciences community with five new LEED-certified buildings and first-class amenities that protects environmentally sensitive areas and responds to climate change challenges.

Project: Bradford Street Access Project (Provincetown, MA)

Client: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum

Firm: Coastal Engineering Company, Inc.

Engineered to create a prominent gateway to the grounds of the historic Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum site, the Bradford Street Access project provides barrier free access and a direct connection between the town center and the monument grounds for all to enjoy. The center piece of the project is a state of the art “inclined elevator” that was custom built for the site and designed to carry passengers from street level to the top of the hill, where visitors can enjoy sweeping views of Provincetown Harbor while visiting the historic site and its impressive 252 ft tall monument.

Project: Restored Resilience: Replacement of Coastal Cedar Point’s Vulnerable Sewer System (Scituate, MA)

Client: Town of Scituate, MA

Firm: Environmental Partners Group, LLC

Cedar Point is a small and beautiful seacoast neighborhood of Scituate, attracting tourists to its lighthouse, and residents who wish to enjoy beaches year-round. Sadly, the peninsula has also been plagued by climate change related sewer issues. Environmental Partners (EP) took an innovative and painstaking approach to solving these issues, designing, sourcing, and overseeing construction of a water-tight gravity sewer system. This method required extreme and often unheard of precision at every phase and has successfully fulfilled the needs of the Cedar Point community.

Project: Harvard Allston Enabling Infrastructure Project (Allston, MA)

Client: Harvard University

Firm: VHB, Inc.

All roads lead to the future of sustainability for Harvard’s SEC and the Allston campus community. VHB’s multimodal, green infrastructure design and multilevel coordination with client, consultant, and neighborhood stakeholders resulted sustainable environment that encourages inclusive, accessible, and equitable transportation alternatives. This forward-thinking, resilient campus infrastructure will reduce commuter carbon footprint and alleviate some of the impacts of climate change—all while reclaiming the old to make way for our bright, bold, and sustainability green future.

Project: Robert Street Bridge Replacement (Roslindale, MA)

Client: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Firm: VHB, Inc.

VHB partnered with the MBTA to replace the Roslindale Street Bridge, built in 1898 and used well beyond its intended life. Carrying the MBTA’s Needham line, the bridge is in a busy neighborhood and adjacent to Roslindale Village Station. The project helped to spark interest in the engineering field with local youth. VHB‘s creative design solution used Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) techniques to minimize shut downs of the track and road below, and used micropiles to support the new bridge without impact to the adjacent station platform. The forward-thinking foundation design accommodates the possibility of a future second bridge.

Project: Route 44 Over Route 24 Bridge Replacement (Raynham, MA)

Client: MassDOT

Firm: VHB

The bridge carrying Route 44 over Route 24 in Raynham, MA, originally constructed in 1950, had reached the end of its useful life and exhibited structural deficiencies. MassDOT awarded a Design-Build contract to the VHB/SPS team for final design and construction of the replacement bridge. The existing four-span bridge was replaced with a two-span, 166-foot-long bridge with added bicycle lanes and widened sidewalks. With a need to minimize disruption to the traveling public and the adjacent communities, VHB and SPS developed an innovative construction approach including a bridge lateral slide, shortening the bridge reconstruction schedule by an entire year.

Project: Langone Park & Puopolo Playground (Boston, MA)

Client: Boston Parks and Recreation Department

Firm: Weston & Sampson Engineers, Inc.

First to incorporate Boston's climate resiliency construction standards, the reconstruction of Langone Park and Puopolo Playground will help protect the park and its harbor edge, the neighborhood, and other public and private assets from projected sea level rise and more frequent storm events. An innovative design provides a resilient 4.5-acre signature waterfront park with an elevated Harborwalk, new secondary seawall, and park features constructed at higher elevations. The redesigned space, located within Boston’s historic and high-density North End, provides critical, equitable passive and active recreational opportunities for a diverse, multi-generational population along with expansive harbor views and access.

Bronze Winners

Project: Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority Bus Electrification (Edgartown, MA)

Client: Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority

Firm: Arup US, Inc. 

Arup is helping the Vineyard Transit Authority to realize the goals of its Electric Drives the Future initiative, involving the transition of its entire fleet to all electric vehicles. Pioneering a decarbonizing model for transit, the combined system supports a more reliable and environmentally responsible public transportation network for Martha’s Vineyard. The microgrid establishes a resilient independent energy source while significantly reducing carbon emissions. The all-electric bus fleet will eliminate 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide over ten years of driving 1.4 million miles annually and will be powered largely by solar energy.

Project: Cochituate Rail Trail (Natick & Framingham, MA)

Clients: Town of Natick and MassDOT Highway Division

Firm: BETA Group, Inc.

The Town of Natick and MassDOT recognize that multi-use paths offer a great opportunity for an alternative means to connect people to destinations, services, and each other, while also promoting recreation and healthy lifestyles. The CRT corridor is a unique opportunity to construct a public multi-use facility that also enhances economic development, the regional transportation network, and regional recreation.  The resulting improvements extend the region’s network of bike and pedestrian amenities and promote mode split.  The CRT is consistent with MassDOT’s Healthy Transportation Policy achieving transportation equity, improving safety and reliability, and significantly increasing opportunities for walking and biking.

Project: John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway Phase 2 (New Bedford, MA)

Client: City of New Bedford

Firm: CDM Smith Inc.

The vision for New Bedford encompasses a robust mixed-use area and a thriving waterfront that adds significant economic value, while fostering future private investment in a key New England region. The $9.2 million JFK Memorial Highway Phase 2 project demonstrates the long-term value of mobility improvements and the critical role they play in the city’s overall revitalization and economic vitality. In keeping with the historical context of the city, this sustainable, 1-mile boulevard style multimodal arterial achieves the city’s goals and improves user accessibility to the waterfront, enhances safety and traffic flow, and promotes walking and livability.

Project: Cambridge Turnpike Improvement Project (Concord, MA)

Client: Town of Concord, MA

Firm: CMA Engineers, Inc.

Concord’s Cambridge Turnpike extends 6,800 feet as an essential gateway to this richly historic community. The roadway includes residential neighborhoods and is an important commuter corridor. The roadway has two significant marsh crossings of Mill Brook. These crossings are underlain by deep peat layers, which for decades caused significant settlement and chronic, severe, and dangerous roadway flooding. The project incorporated unique application of deep ground geotechnical improvements to support raising the roadway including bridges and culverts, mitigating flooding while limiting wetlands impacts. This was combined with a context sensitive design of a multi-modal corridor in the significant historic setting.

Project: Newtonville Center’s Complete Streets: The Intersection of Placemaking & Community Safety (Newton, MA)

Client: Shawmut Corporation & The Fallon Company

Firm: Environmental Partners Group, LLC

EP’s Newtonville Center Placemaking project transformed one of Newton’s village centers into a more welcoming experience for shoppers, diners, pedestrians, and cyclists. Strategically designing a corridor intended to enhance the beauty of Newtonville Center and safety for all modes of transportation, the project has helped to revitalize the area and encourage a healthier and more sustainable future for Newton residents and visitors.

Project: Shawmut Corporation - Nonwoven Meltblown PPE Production Facility (Bridgewater, MA)

Client: Shawmut Corporation

Firm: Fitzemeyer & Tocci Associates, Inc.

Fitzemeyer & Tocci provided MEP/FP engineering and construction administration for the fast-paced design and construction of Shawmut Corporation’s new Nonwoven Meltblown PPE Production Facility. In the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, PPE was in high demand but short supply, increasing the complexity of this project not only in the design but also in the speed to market. In partnership with Linea 5, Inc. and A/Z Corporation, this exciting project went from concept to production in just six months. The state-of-the-art expanded manufacturing facility based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, enables end-to-end production of up to 180 million masks per year.

Project: The Reconstruction of Route 140 (Princeton, MA)

Client: Town of Princeton, MA

Firm: GPI

The Reconstruction of Route 140 was a complex project with several challenges that required some unique solutions. It also required many involved with the project to consider other factors when weighing alternatives or applying minimum standards to a design. The adage “no one size fits all” best describes this project. A standard arterial section could have been forced through the East Princeton Village or a typical tee intersection implemented at Route 140 and Route 31, but the town trusted GPI to provide a design that would meet their goals, and their trust was rewarded.

Project: Village Street Water Tank Decommission (Marblehead, MA)

Client: Marblehead Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners

Firm: Haley Ward, Inc.

100 years ago, predecessor firm Barbour-Dixon, designed the Village Street Water Tank (Village Tank) for the residents of Marblehead. Fast forward to 2020 the riveted steel tank was at the end of its useful life after successfully providing Marblehead residents with drinking water for decades. Through this master planning and agency coordination process, Haley Ward helped the Town of Marblehead to avoid the replacement cost of an elevated water storage tank.  A fraction of the planned capital funds was redirected to pumping system redundancy improvements.  Long term maintenance costs were avoided, and the system water age was reduced. 

Project: Harvard Quincy DeWolfe Multimodal Corridor Project

Client: Harvard Capital Projects

Firm: Jacobs Engineering, Inc.

Since its completion in December 2020, the new bike infrastructure has successfully expanded the City of Cambridge’s bicycle facility network with a new north-south corridor for cyclists, improved bike facilities along Quincy, Bow, and DeWolfe Streets to accommodate two-way bike circulation, new traffic calming measures along the corridor, and improved adjacent street surfaces. This project sets a new standard in public-private partnership, advancing women in our engineering and construction industry, and ensuring safe and enhanced mobility for all modes of travel.

Project: Resilient Cambridge (Cambridge, MA)

Client: City of Cambridge, MA

Firm: Kleinfelder Northeast

Resilient Cambridge is the City's plan, to prepare the City for the impacts of climate change, building resiliency while enhancing the City and its citizens’ quality of life. The plan was developed with Kleinfelder, the City’s lead resiliency consultant, and utilizes the latest data and science to assess impacts due to changes in extreme heat, rainfall, sea level rise, and storm surge. Resilient Cambridge details resiliency strategies under four categories (Closer Neighborhoods, Better Buildings, Stronger Infrastructure, and Greener City) and establishes a roadmap for implementation of prioritized resiliency strategies over the next ten years.

Project: Ferry Street Redevelopment (Easthampton, MA)

Client: City of Easthampton, MA

Firm: McMahon Associates

For decades, the mills on Ferry Street in Easthampton, MA produced world-renowned textiles. When the mills closed in the 1960s, it left behind an abandoned site that remained empty until 2021.  When private developers created a new vision for the site, the City of Easthampton engaged McMahon Associates to use a $3.5 million MassWorks grant for vast roadway, intersection and streetscape enhancements, along with pedestrian improvements to connect to the Manhan Rail Trail. The successful completion of this project created a revitalized section of the City, with modern transportation and pedestrian designs that promote safe travel and recreation.

Project: Weston Town Center Improvements (Weston, MA)

Client: Town of Weston

Firm: Nitsch Engineering, Inc.

Nitsch Engineering provided engineering design and land surveying services to revitalize the Weston Town Center into a community hub, building upon Arthur Shurcliff’s vision from over 100 years ago. The project established a sense of place by relocating overhead utilities underground, improving pedestrian accessibility and safety, and creating new open spaces and amenities. The Town’s decision to underground utilities improves the aesthetics of the Town Center, improves resilience by minimizing outages, and reduces the risk of accidents caused by downed power lines. This major transition to the historic Weston Town Center serves as an example to other aspiring urban communities.

Project: Charlestown Bus Facility Shoreline Stabilization and Yard Improvements (Charlestown, MA)

Client: MBTA and Mass. Department of Conservation & Recreation

Firm: Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger

The Charlestown Bus Facility is the MBTA’s largest bus garage and critical to daily transportation service. The steel sheet pile seawall, which protected the facility from flooding and river erosion, was severely deteriorated, allowing for settlement behind the wall that threatened the facility’s operations. By designing an embankment, the team created a more natural and resilient sea barrier, while also providing a new multiuse path for the community and the better protection for the MBTA facility.

Project: Route 7 (Cold Spring Road) Culvert Replacement (Williamstown, MA)

Client: MassDOT

Firm: SLR International Corporation

This culvert replacement project is worthy of special recognition as it is one of the first in the Commonwealth to be designed to specifically match its unique stream channel setting.  The project eliminated a chronic maintenance need for the Highway District, and was designed and built in a short period of time to allow use of supplemental funding offered to MassDOT for project implementation.  The design approach is a product of the Massachusetts Rivers & Roads Training to reduce risks and river-road conflict zones through the application of river science to transportation engineering.

Project: Rehabilitation of Runway 05-23, Westover Air Reserve Base (Chicopee, MA)

\Client: Westover Air Reserve Base

Firm: Stantec Consulting

Stantec provided full design services to address the repair of Runway 05/23 and Runway 05/23 Overruns at Westover Air Reserve Base, located in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The project includes the $5.6M repair of the 05 and 23 overruns and approach lighting system, and the $21.5M repair of the 05/23 Runway. Despite the aggressive schedule, the project was delivered on time, within budget, and to high standard while meeting the owner’s and end user’s conditions of satisfaction.

Project: Harvard University, District Energy Facility (Allston, MA)

Client: Leers Weinzapfel & Associates Architects

Firm: Thornton Tomasetti, Inc.

Harvard’s new District Energy Facility (DEF) provides the future capability to transition its campus to a fossil-fuel-free future, withstands climate impacts including storm surge flooding, and provides a reliable, resilient source of heating, cooling and electricity to all the buildings on the new research campus. The facility generates fuel flexibly, with 5.2 megawatts of power via dual-fuel (natural gas/fuel oil) engines, hot water boilers, electric centrifugal chillers and an electric switching station.

Project: Coonamessett River Restoration and John Parker Road Bridge (Falmouth, MA)

Client: Town of Falmouth

Firm: Tighe & Bond, Inter-Fluve

The Coonamessett River Restoration and John Parker Road Bridge established a thriving, self-sustaining river and wetland ecosystem that supports aquatic organisms and wildlife while increasing coastal resiliency. The restoration allows fish to pass freely along the river and seeds from wetland plants that had been buried for 300 years under mill ponds and cranberry bogs to spring to life. The economical and sustainable design of the John Parker Road Bridge ensures a reliable structure and a connection to the area’s walking paths. This project has increased educational opportunities for the public to learn about the important impact of ecological restoration.

Project: Crescent March Restoration Project (Saugus, MA)

Client: Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Firm: VHB

Part of a state-designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern, Crescent Marsh in Saugus constitutes an important natural resource. The marsh’s fragile 23-acre ecosystem declined when an undersized culvert connecting it to an estuary failed. With the culvert located under an access road that crossed a capped municipal landfill, VHB’s project team had to determine a safe solution for its replacement that minimized the impact to the business operations of the company that owned the road. Successfully installed, the 6-foot concrete box replacement culvert now supplies adequate tidal flow and stormwater drainage for the eventual restoration of this critical habitat.

Project: Utilities Master Plan (Gloucester, MA)

Client: City of Gloucester

Firm: Wright-Pierce

Wright-Pierce developed a holistic 20-year utility master plan to include GIS mapping; prioritization of wastewater and stormwater assets based on criticality; sewer system, pump station, and force main assessments; and presentation of results in a GIS format.

The results of the master plan included inspections of catch basins, manholes, pipes, and outfalls with condition assessments which led to recommendations for future investigations via a Capital Improvement Implementation Plan focused on meeting the City’s Level of Service goals. The plan was presented in GIS and incorporated into the City’s GIS data to be utilized for implementing/updating year to year.

Project: WWTF Secondary Systems Upgrade (Fitchburg, MA)

Client: City of Fitchburg

Firm: Wright-Pierce

This $25 million project included extensive upgrades to the aeration tanks including new 3-zone anoxic/anaerobic selectors with hyperbolic mixers

,concrete re-surfacing and coating, and fine bubble diffuser system replacement. The WWTFs hydraulic grade was increased to allow gravity flow through a future tertiary solids removal process for phosphorus removal. The secondary clarifiers were upgraded with new mechanisms and extensive concrete resurfacing and coating as well as raising the level for the second stage. Secondary system pump galleries and the primary gallery were renovated with new pumps, HVAC, and electrical components. Higher flow capacity and lower chemical usage were successfully achieved

“These winning projects exemplify ingenuity and professionalism and represent the breadth of engineering’s contribution to our everyday lives,” said ACEC/MA President Scott Miller. “They are outstanding examples of how engineers connect communities, provide safe and reliable water and energy, and make our buildings safe and efficient. The professional engineers and their colleagues at our member firms are dedicated to working on quality infrastructure, which wouldn’t otherwise exist. These outstanding projects are but a few examples of the quality work designed by Massachusetts engineering firms.”